That We Might Have Hope

[Christsfreeservant]

“Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength and not just please ourselves. Each of us is to please his neighbor for his good, to his edification. For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written, ‘The reproaches of those who reproached You fell on Me.’ For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” (Romans 15:1-4 NASB’95)

When the book of Romans was penned by Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, it was not a book with chapters and verses, but it was all one complete letter to the church, the beloved of God in Rome, called as saints. So, if you are not familiar with the book, it would be good if you could read the entire book of Romans in one sitting to help you get the proper context of each section. For Romans 15:1 is a reference back to what was discussed in Romans 14, for again, there were not chapter and verse divisions then.

The subject matter of Romans 14 has to do with Christians whose faith was weak. And what Paul meant by weak was that they were still holding on to some of the Old Covenant ceremonial and dietary laws and restrictions. They were still holding on to the Sabbath day as the holy day of the week, and they would not eat meat, but only vegetables. So the Christians who knew that they no longer had to keep those Old Covenant requirements were not to judge those whose faith was weak, who felt that they did, and vice versa.

So, as we begin chapter 15 we need to go back and read chapter 14 so that we have the proper context. For the “weaknesses” of those without strength is in reference to those who felt as though they still had to hold to a few of the Old Covenant ceremonial and dietary laws. God did not condemn them for this, though. And Paul acknowledged that the ones who were free from those specific Old Covenant laws, and those who were not, who still kept the Sabbath and ate only vegetables, they both did so as unto the Lord.

So, why is it important that we understand this? Because many people are beginning with chapter 15, out of context of chapter 14, and they are interpreting for themselves what these “weaknesses” are. And many are interpreting them as addictive sins, like someone addicted to porn or to alcohol or to lying, cheating, stealing, and/or committing adultery, etc. And they are excusing away the sinful behaviors as weaknesses and teaching that all Christians are to tolerate the sinners and their sinful practices.

But that is not biblical. The Bible teaches that we are to exhort one another daily so that none of us are led astray by the deceitfulness of sin, and we are to be speaking the truth in love to one another so that we are not led astray by false teachers to go after multiple “winds of doctrine” by their human cunning, craftiness, and deceitful scheming. And if a fellow believer is caught in sin, we who are spiritual are to restore him, i.e. bring him back into a right relationship with Jesus Christ in a walk of obedience to the Lord.

We who are walking in obedience to our Lord in holy living, and not in sin, are not to coddle professing Christians in their sinful lifestyles, but we are to exhort them and encourage them and speak the truth to them in love in hopes that they will repent of (turn away from) their sinful practices in the hopes that they will now follow the Lord Jesus in walks of obedience to him in surrender to his will for their lives. And we are to give them hope that they can defeat the sin in the power of God, by the grace of God.

[Acts 2:42-47; Romans 12:1-8; 1 Corinthians 12:1-31; 1 Corinthians 14:1-5; Galatians 6:1; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:1-16; Ephesians 5:15-21; Ephesians 6:10-20; Philippians 2:1-8; Colossians 3:12-16; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:13; Hebrews 10:23-25; James 5:19-20]

So, if we are strong in our walks of faith in obedience to our Lord, we are not to bear with (tolerate, allow for, pamper) believers’ sinful practices. We are to bear with those who feel as though they still need to keep the Sabbath and/or that they must regard one day a week more sacred than another, and we are to bear with those who eat only vegetables and who do not have the freedom to eat meat. They should not judge us in our freedoms (the ones by God) and we should not judge them by what Paul called their weaknesses.

But we should be unified by our walks of faith in obedience to our Lord and by the desires of our hearts to do what is pleasing to the Lord and to serve him with our lives. We don’t have to agree with each other on everything to be unified, but we need to agree on the essentials such as the divinity of Jesus Christ, of his blood sacrifice on that cross for the sins of the world, of his bodily resurrection, of his ascension back to heaven, and of his sending his Holy Spirit to dwell within the lives of all true followers of Jesus Christ.

And we should agree on the gospel message, too. And so it is critical that we not build our doctrine of salvation from sin out of Bible verses taught out of context and made to say what they do not say if taught in the appropriate context. But this practice is what is being popularized today. And so multitudes are being fed the lies and they are accepting the lies as truth and so they are relying on lip service only to God for their salvation from sin and their eternal life with God while they do not change how they were living.

And this is because what Jesus taught and what his New Testament apostles taught as the gospel message is largely being ignored and/or it is being altered to make it not offensive to human flesh and to the ungodly of the world. But it isn’t just the gospel which is being altered but it is also the divine character and will of God and the character of his church, his body of believers in him. They have altered all three of these to make them more acceptable and appealing to human flesh and to the people of the world.

But if we are going to have true hope in Jesus Christ we need to believe in him with biblical faith which comes from God, which is authored by Christ, which is persuaded of God, which is gifted to us by God, and which is not of our own doing – not of the will nor of the flesh of humans. And the Scriptures teach us God persuades us that we must deny self, die to sin daily (in practice), and walk in obedience to his commands, in practice. And if sin is still our practice, and not obedience, we will not inherit eternal life with God. For Jesus died so we will die to sin and obey his commandments.

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 1:12-13; John 6:44; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 2:6-8; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:5-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10]

As the Deer

By Martin J. Nystrom
Based off Psalm 42:1

As the deer panteth for the water
So my soul longeth after You
You alone are my heart's desire
And I long to worship You

You alone are my strength, my shield
To You alone may my spirit yield
You alone are my heart's desire
And I long to worship You

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That We Might Have Hope
An Original Work / March 18, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love